
Show Notes
Emma Bates, co-founder and CEO of Cachai, joins the show to break down what true drone swarming actually means and why almost no one has achieved it. Drawing from her background in defense modernization and distributed systems, Emma explains how her team is building software that enables drones and autonomous systems to operate without a single point of failure. The conversation dives into distributed consensus, the difference between “common” and “consistent” operating pictures, and why the U.S. must rethink how it evaluates and procures software. It’s a deep, funny, and surprisingly human discussion about autonomy, warfare, startups, and what it really means to make machines think together.
Episode 54.
Links to the show: YouTube Spotify Substack Apple Podcasts Instagram X (Twitter) LinkedIn
Follow Steve: LinkedIn X (Twitter) Allen Control Systems
More from The Drone Ultimatum
What happens when a drone needs to navigate underground, inside a building, or in an environment where GPS is unavailable?
Malin Crewse and LeGrand Crewse are brothers and co-founders of Corvus Industries, where LeGrand serves as CEO and Malin as CTO.
Derek McBride, Portfolio Manager in the Autonomous Warfare portfolio at the Department of War Innovation Unit (DIU), joins the show to discuss how the Pentagon is approaching drones, autonomy, and the defense industrial base.
Josh Giegel is the Founder and CEO of Gambit AI, an autonomous systems software company building technology to coordinate teams of robots.
Brian Taylor is the Founder & CEO of Lux Aeterna, a startup developing the world's first fully reusable satellite for high-tempo, reliable, and flexible timelines in orbit.